Saturday, 13 April 2013

The Scoop

Every now and again, for one reason or another, Caroline will send me off down the Rescue with a pet carrier to bring back a pair of bunnies. Maybe they are being moved, maybe they are being weighed, maybe they are being health-checked. But one thing you can guarantee is that even if they don't scarper at the sight of me approaching carrier-in-hand ("Argh! Vet trip day!"), the second bunny will always disappear at speed the moment they see me put their friend in it.

Well, that's not quite always true - for example, Betty-Boo and Wilbur are so curious and into everything, if I put a pet carrier anywhere near them they dive straight in to investigate, door closed, job done. But mostly...

Now as you can imagine, the whole uncertainty of what could possibly be going on, being a prey animal, seeing your beloved partner being shut into a small container - it has got to be scary, especially when the moment the door is shut the human turns their attention on you. And with groups of bunnies, by the time you pick the last one up, either because it takes longer to get to them or because they see each sibling disappear and see their turn gradually approaching, they are often properly scared.

So, when Caroline said "Can you go and get me Darwin's 7 children for weighing and having their ears marked - oh, and they are not in their shed, we let them out to run around the bottom of the Rescue..." I just assumed Caroline was enacting some sort of revenge on me.

Well, I'm sure you can guess where this is going. There was no Benny Hill style chase. I walked up to the first one.

"Hello!" I said.

"Oh, hi! Are we going to play a game?" said the bunny.

Scoop. Cuddle. Stuff (into carrier). Repeat.

I couldn't believe it! Easiest and cuddliest job ever! 7 bunnies, one after the other, one hundred percent trust. I could have cried, they were so sweet.

were they born in rescue? The group of 6 we have had since they were born are amazing trusting . . . too trusting to be honest - I have seen them watch fascinated as a fox strolled past - could have sworn at least one of them waved.